Thomas Francis Meagher

Thomas Francis Meagher (3 August 1823-1 July 1867) was Governor of Montana from September 1865 to 3 October 1866 (succeeding Sidney Edgerton and preceding Green Clay Smith) and from December 1866 to 1 July 1867 (interrupting Smith's terms). Meagher was an Irish nationalist who was one of the leaders of the Young Ireland Rebellion of 1848, and, upon its failure, he emigrated to the United States and became a Union Army Brigadier-General during the American Civil War, commanding the Irish Brigade. He was murdered by political opponents in Montana in 1867.

Biography
Thomas Francis Meagher was born in Waterford, County Waterford, Ireland on 3 August 1823, the son of Repeal Association MP Thomas Meagher. He was educated at Roman Catholic boarding schools and in Lancashire, England, and he overcame his "horrible Irish brogue" to develop an Anglo-Irish upper-class accent and English idiosyncrasies. He returned to Ireland in 1843 and considered joining the Austrian army, but he instead studied for the bar in Dublin in 1844. He became involved in the Repeal Association, and, in 1846, he denounced English liberalism in Ireland, suspecting that the Repealers would become Whig puppets. He and William Smith O'Brien co-founded the radical Young Ireland movement, and, in January 1847, they left the Repeal Association to found the Irish Confederation. Meagher and O'Brien studied the French Revolution of 1848 before returning home with the Irish tricolor, inspired by the French revolutionary flag. They then participated in the Young Irelander Rebellion, and Meagher, Thomas Devin Reilly, and John Mitchel were sentenced to death for treason. However, public outcry and international condemnation led to the commutation of their sentences, and Meagher and the others were exiled to Australia. He later escaped to New York in the United States, where he married the daughter of a wealthy Protestant family and converted her to Catholicism. Meagher became a US citizen in 1852 and founded the weekly Irish News newspaper, also publishing the anti-British Citizen. He also briefly travelled to Costa Rica to determine whether Central America would be suitable for Irish immigration.

American Civil War
When the American Civil War broke out, Meagher was conflicted, as he was sympathetic with the people of the American South, as was his friend John Mitchel; however, he decided to side with the Union after the Battle of Fort Sumter, while three of Mitchel's sons served in the Confederate States Army. Meagher formed Company K of the 69th New York Infantry Regiment from 100 young Irishmen, and he became the regiment's colonel after its previous colonel, Michael Corcoran, was captured at the First Battle of Bull Run. After Bull Run, Meagher returned to New York City to form the Irish Brigade, becoming a Brigadier-General and leading the brigade during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862. His brigade gained the reputation of fierce fighters after the Battle of Seven Pines, and his reinforcement of the faltering V Corps at the Battle of Gaines' Mill was one of the highlights of his career. His brigade suffered huge losses at the Battle of Antietam, losing 540 men at the Sunken Road; he was rumored to have been drunk during the battle. At the Battle of Fredericksburg, he led 1,200 Irish Brigade troops to attack the Confederate positions, but only 281 returned the next morning. On 14 May 1863, following the Battle of Chancellorsville, Meagher resigned his commission. On 23 December, the death of Corcoran led to the Union Army rescinding Meagher's resignation and appointing him to command the District of Etowah in the Department of the Cumberland from 1864 to 1865.

Politics
After the war, he served as Secretary (Governor) of the Montana Territory, attempting to convince the Republican executive and judicial branches to work with the Democratic legislative branch. He made enemies in both camps due to his failed attempts to reconcile them, and he also failed to catch the Native American killers of John Bozeman or to pass a state constitution. On 1 July 1867, his political opponents threw him over the side of the steamboat G.A. Thompson on the Missouri River, and he drowned near-instantly amid the surging rapids.